“Choose your wife with her nightcap on”

My mother told me that my great grandpa used to tease my grandfather and his brothers about the women that they were dating. From an early age, they learned the Scottish saying “choose your wife with her nightcap on.” Taken literally what this meant was that you are going to wake up with somebody without out their makeup up on and their hair messy, and they are going to be in their true form. Because of this, you will get to see what they are really like so you should make sure that you still like that person without them being all done up. One can take it further to mean that you should get to know the real person. My mother tells that her father used to tell her brother, “Don’t marry the prettiest one; marry the one that is your true soul mate.” You should not just focus on the appearance of the person but rather on their personality and their compatibility with yourself when choosing a mate.

My mom said that today our saying for this would be “beauty is more than skin deep.” You need to get to know the real person and not get lured into what people look like. “Don’t always go for the prettiest girl; go for girls with personality.” I used to hear this all growing up from my parents whenever I would go do something with girls. I really enjoy this saying and I think that it applies tremendously to the Los Angeles culture and lifestyle. So much of living in Southern California is being caught up in the materialistic elements of this society and people are so often focused on the outward appearance as an indicator of ones worth. More people should heed the advice in this saying and they would be better off.